For Christmas of 1972 I got a Polaroid Swinger camera. It was my first camera and it was one of my most memorable gifts ever.

However, the word “memorable” is open for discussion. The model I’m showing here was too funky looking to resist, but I think it was discontinued in 1970. I think there were spinoffs of the original Swinger, and that’s what I must have had. Perhaps it was the “Super Swinger,” which was apparently released in 1972 and sounds like my camera. The pictures were tiny, black and white, and expensive. I seem to remember that an 8-pack costs something like $20, 50 years ago! I was nine years old and had no income.

My memory also tells me that I got the camera in 1974, even though it can’t be.

I LOVED this camera. I still have a handful of photos I took with it. My love of taking pictures (there is no term for that outside of shutter bug) went dormant for five or six years after that when I bought a Nikon EM, and others that followed, until I settled on my iPhone camera like everyone else.

PS: since I was about 17, I have been saying to my various families that we should give up gifts and only make charitable donations this time of year. I still feel nauseous at how much conspicuous consumption and self-centred expectation dominate our souls this time of year. Did I get it? Is it the right size? Is my gift to them better than theirs to me? Is that good or bad? When can I return it? Is it fake? Is it generic? Is it a regift? Who gives gift cards anyway? Who gives cash anyway (actually, no one says that)? A panettone again?

All of my liberal guilt and disgust aside, though, I realize that a) I really like giving people gifts and b) a number of gifts have really changed my life, sometimes in small ways and sometimes in large ways, when you get right down to it. The Swinger was one of them.